Albuquerque Museum Photo Archives

Albuquerque Museum's rich archive of historic photographs document Albuquerque, its people, architecture, businesses, urban landscape, and depictions of daily life and important events

Albuquerque Museum's Photo Archives include approximately 125,000 objects documenting the history of the central Rio Grande and the City of Albuquerque from 1867 to the present. They include photographic prints, slides, and negatives; oral history recordings; maps; ephemera; postcards; film; and digitized media.

The archives contain the holdings of several early photographic studios including the Cobb Collection (early glass plate negatives), Milner and Bandel Collections (early business and cultural history), Brooks Collection (portraiture), and the Ward Hicks Collection (20th century advertising); together these collections document almost every aspect of Albuquerque’s development from the arrival of the railroad (1880) to the present, including both Old and New Town development. Other major collections include the Coddington-Stamm Collection (early business history, ballooning and aviation), the Hubbell Collection (the Gutiérrez-Hubbell Family of Pajarito), Albuquerque Public Schools Collection, and the Albuquerque State Fair Collection.

Significant donations include materials documenting Albuquerque’s founding families and their homes and businesses; railroad-era businesses and industries near New Town, and the Alvarado Hotel and other historic downtown buildings demolished in the 20th century. The collection is augmented by major gifts of prints and negatives provided by the Albuquerque Public Library Special Collections and UNM Center for Southwestern Research.

If you have old photographs of Albuquerque and wish to donate them to Albuquerque Museum's Photo Archive, please call 505.243.7255.